Answering some questions…

…but not others. Heh.

After last week’s introspection about meaningful making, I took the leap into an intricate design of some stitchery related to something very close to my heart. There is much to discuss before revealing the overall design because it might be a difficult subject for some to consider. This is not teasing; I’m just not ready to give up my own peaceful meditation on the topic to external opinions yet. Does that make sense?

But, apologies, I will bore you with every stitch though. This is a monogamish time for concentrating on one thing and trying to make serious progress.

Thanks for the comments on the initial project teaser post. I answered some of the questions right in the comments section because I thought the answers might be of interest to others. Want some more data?

The fabric is labeled as 40ct linen, but there are more than 20 st/in. At this small scale, I do use some cheater reading glasses to magnify. The +1.00 are okay, but switching to +2.00 effectively doubled my stitching pace.

There are more than 60 colors going on in this design overall. I was storing the flosses in that owl tin (gotten for $1 at Joann last October!), but things got disorganized in a jiffy. So I got a simple art supply box to be a flossbox. The orderly storage immediately resolved my anxiety about tangles. Whew.

As I approach new colors in my chart, I wind onto bobbins and separate by color in the box. There are metallics going on for richness in some areas. Those don’t go on bobbins. And, umm, they are a pain to use. Glitter everywhere! But they are so far doing exactly as intended in the desired shading.

I don’t normally pre-chart my sititchery because I like the improvisational approach and the capricious nature of the results. But I’m starting to enjoy shaping on the computer screen for some things especially to get a bird’s-eye view of the effects of minute detail work. Of course, I still make some major adjustments once thread and linen are in hand, but for these intricate designs, it’s nice to have some semblance of a road map.

This chart is 37 pages of hieroglyphics. I shade in stitch by stitch as I stitch. These colors are so close that I can’t always tell which stitch is which, so having a geometric reference is really handy too. (This photo is after the progress shot above.) Why page 18 rather than 1? Well, as my godmother taught me a billion years ago, it helps to work from the center first.

And I work with just one page of the chart at a time. In this photo it’s on an old copy stand for typing. Remember those? It’s metal and that bar is a magnet that I use to hold the chart while also keeping my place marked.

Oh, and I don’t use a hoop. Normally I just crumple the linen in my left hand, tension with my finger tips and stitch with my right hand. This really cramps up after a long while. Specifically for this project, because I want better endurance, I got a frame. Unfortunately, it turns out that I prefer to tension with my fingers. So I now just use the scrolls of the frame (rather than crumpling in my palm), holding the work vertically in my lap. This might not make any sense, but maybe this next photo starts to clear it up?

Here’s where we are now:

Believe it or not, it’s starting to reveal itself. But, well, there are 35 more rectangles like this to do. Slowly and steadily…and enabled by a good blizzard.

30 comments

Well, did you teach yourself how to stitch like this? I am mystified by how you manage to do such beautiful calligraphy in stitching…and where are you getting these incredible 18 page designs? Are they your own?

how you have soared from the teaching your godmother gave you…your work goes beyond any adjective to give it justice..thank you for sharing so much of the details of this piece. I agree, handwork is always an opportunity for mediation.

I will avidly await the reveal and in the meantime, keep warm and safe in the blizzard. And don’t forget to get up and move around once in awhile to keep the arteries clear!! haha. You’re my inspiration these days. (And I still have one of those typist’s stands stored in my overhead cabinet at work. Thanks for reminding me about it – it will come in handy for a project some day, I’m sure. I should bring it home because it belongs to me and should be there, since I never use at my job.)

I started a pixelated quilt of a computer tweaked Monet YEARS ago, and use a similar method of gridding and marking off. I think you have just inspired me to pull that beast out again. What kind of light do you stitch by?

I have been lurking and admiring for quite a while now. I am wondering, do you use linen rather than Aida because you will leave some of the fabric exposed at the end, or because it gives a better quality product even if the fabric is all covered with stitches? Or some other reason?

Needlepoint or counted cross-stitch? I have some charts in mid-process in X-stitch that I should really pull out and try to finish…nothing so amazing as charted by myself, tho’! Looking foward to watching this develop. Enjoy the enforced solitude…sorry we’re only getting a couple of inches this time around – that are almost gone already.
(((hugs)))

I’m more than content to read about it stitch by stitch if you aren’t ready to reveal (and yes, what you said about that made complete sense in my opinion). My question, though, is how exactly did you chart this design out? With a program or did you literally choose each color that would go in each square? Part of that curiosity is wondering how long it took you to chart out a complicated design like this…

i love how you make your work your work. you guard it until you are ready to give more. this is gorgeous and amazingly difficult for me to comprehend how you can keep it all straight. i think your math brain is made for this.

I really like to read your answers right here in the comments. I thought it was an eye, too, a brown eye with green specs, now I know it isn’t :)
It’s beautiful, whatever it is.
Looking forward to following your progress!

This is exactly what we all need – the opposite to the instant gratification, I want it NOW world. Thos gorgeous project will reveal it’s glories slowly and we will be tantalized and intrigued along the way. But most of all, we will have to wait and be patient to be rewarded with each stage revealed. Congratulations on a fascinating piece of art.

Just to add that DMC metallics are a truly terrible product which I have many hard feelings towards as a sewist – I have sometimes said that I think this product was invented as part of a secret psychological experiment to drive embroiders to homicide. I like all their other floss/perle so much so that’s the only explanation i can think of.

And it maybe looks like that’s what your using in the box. If you have a flossy sort of store nearby you might try some other brands of metalic. I like Kreinik threads which my area Joann’s sells. And Rainbow Gallery has nice metallic options.